This month’s RPG blog carnival is about what hides in darkness [link]. Here are three monsters that make shadows dangerous.
Drop Snake
This winged serpent inhabits tropical forests. It flies up high into the canopy where it watches closely what moves beneath. Its excellent night visions allows it to pick out prey even in pitch black darkness. Once it’s spotted food it drops from the tree and glides silently with darkness hiding its approach. It strikes like a bolas, wrapping itself around its prey’s head and neck. As it crushes the life out of the prey, it whips a long thin tail out to strike at any threats.
Soul Coral
Floating just above reefs on full moons can be found thousands of these tiny black spectral creatures. Jellyfish like, their small tendrils reach out to feed on the magic and soul of any passing marine life. The transfer causes a very brief flash of light that would scare away prey if it weren’t hidden by the moonlight. Larger animals will find themselves swarmed and smothered with repeated potential attacks before their soul and magic is painfully drained away.
Turned Steel
An evil spirit that lurks in deep darkness, fearful of the light that it finds too noisy. To help it find quiet it possesses metal and twists it into a beetle shape it find familiar. If disturbed by light it relentlessly attacks the first target it see, using all its potential in one attack every turn. If its corporeal form loses all its body and mind advantages, the metal shatters and the spirit flees to find more metal to possess.
Image Credit – Darkness by Marlo Zapat – CC-BY-SA-2.0